Dr. Drew Speaks Out on Mindy McCready’s Death + the ‘Celebrity Rehab’ Curse

Following her tragic death from a self-inflicted gunshot, Mindy McCready became the fifth alum of ‘Celebrity Rehab’ — which later had a name change to ‘Rehab With Dr. Drew’ — to die in an untimely manner since appearing on the show.

Obviously, this doesn’t make Dr. Drew Pinsky look too good.

(Neither do the peon deaths that went down at one of his facilities, either, but that’s another story.)

Pinsky spoke to CNN last night about the sad news, claiming he reached out to McCready a month before her passing.

“When I heard she was struggling, I did reach out to her and urged her to go to take care of herself, get in a facility if she felt she needed,” Pinsky said.

“Her biggest fear was the stigma of doing so and what people would think if she, God forbid, took care of herself. And this to me is the most distressing part of this story. She is a lovely woman, we have lost her, and it didn’t have to go down like this.”

Furthermore, the doc — who was alleged to be a shill for pharmaceutical companies — released a full statement about McCready’s death to VH1.

I am deeply saddened by this awful news. My heart goes out to Mindy’s family and children. She is a lovely woman who will be missed by many. Although I have not treated her for few years, I had reached out to her recently upon hearing about the apparent suicide of her boyfriend and father of her younger children. She was devastated. Although she was fearful of stigma and ridicule she agreed with me that she needed to make her health and safety a priority. Unfortunately it seems that Mindy did not sustain her treatment.

Mental health issues can be life threatening and need to be treated with the same intensity and resources as any other dangerous potentially life threatening medical condition. Treatment is effective. If someone you know is suffering please be sure he or she gets help and maintains treatment.

It’s worth noting that despite Pinsky’s involvement with ‘Celebrity Rehab,’ he claims that he never officially treated McCready. (Uh, what?)

So far, McCready is the only suicide post-’Celebrity Rehab,’ but ‘Grease’ star Jeff Conaway, Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and ‘Real World’ alum Joey Kovar all either OD’ed or succumbed to drug-related complications leading to their deaths. Rodney King drowned and was found with marijuana, cocaine and booze in his system after what was supposed to be a year of sobriety.

Mackenzie Phillips, one of McCready’s surviving ‘Celebrity Rehab’ housemates, tweeted about her grief.

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